An Anecdote

This is a personal experience, believe or not, but according to me, it really happened. It might have been just hallucination, a delusion so to say.

 First of all, let me tell you something about myself. You will be interested to know where I am located. Well to be very explicit, I have one foot in the grave—I hope you have caught on! I mean to say I am a Senior Citizen. I have a son, a daughter-in-law, and four wonderful grandchildren. That consists of all the members of my family. My son, Niku is very fond of me. His wife Pramela is more of a daughter, than a daughter-in-law. She takes great care of me, and is very solicitous about my well-being. Whenever she goes out, invariably there is some kind of gift for me. One day it so happened that I had to leave this paradise, and was rushed to the hospital.

          Now, what I am going to tell you is very personal, but unless I apprise you of all the details, you will not be able to understand, and gauge what really could have happened. I had a virulent gastric attack. I was running to and fro to the toilet, and in the later stages, there was absolutely no possibility of running, or walking, I did not even have the stamina to crawl to the toilet. I was not only throwing up, but it seemed I was on the verge of going up myself!        Seeing my critical condition, my family called an ambulance, and I was unceremoniously packed off-- in case before reaching the hospital, I became a public nuisance again!

                I believe I entered the portals of Medical College. There the Doctors started me immediately on Saline drip, and punctured me brutally a number of times, as if they were deriving tremendous satisfaction by doing that, and pushed litres of medicine through injections. But my condition did not improve. It seemed I was booked to be a favored guest in God’s Kingdom.

          I will not bore you with the details of my death pangs. But what is important for you to know, is that I did die. The Doctors and Nurses tried their best to resuscitate me, but to no avail. They could not feel my pulse; neither could they hear the thumping of the heart. At the end, after all the efforts had been exhausted, somebody said, “He is dead”.

             But how was I dead? I could hear them talk. I tried to tell them that I was not dead, but sound would not come out from my throat, neither could I move my lips. I wanted to tell them that I was very much alive—but how? I tried to get up, but all efforts failed me. I could hear they were saying that Doctor should be called to give the Death Certificate. Somebody added, “He has to have an autopsy. He came in, as an Emergency Case.” “What, they are going to cut me up, hack me into pieces?!”I protested outrageously to myself. I was definitely not going to allow them. I felt like shouting, “No-No- No!” but all efforts failed me. It was like those night mares we get, we see somebody chasing us, but we cannot run, as if we are chained! We may see somebody is going to kill us, but we are unable to shout”.

                 Then a strange thing happened. I seemed to detach myself from my body. I was floating. I felt I was absolutely fine. I did not feel like an ailing Senior Citizen. I felt euphoric. At that moment my foremost thought was to be with my dear ones. And there I was at our 6 Ballygunge Place .I saw my son, and grandchildren crying. I wanted to tell them that I was not dead, so there was no reason to mourn. But surprisingly though I went on talking to them, it seemed they could not hear me. I gesticulated and tried to draw their attention, but it seemed they could not see me. Then I heard my daughter-in-law telling my son, “Why are you crying? We had to spend so much for the old man-- two Attendants for Day and Night, costing us thousands. Then because he could not manage to keep up with us when we went sight-seeing, we could not go out on a holiday, to enjoy a care-free excursion. It is good he is dead”. I was shocked to hear this coming from my daughter-in-law’s mouth, who seemed to have cared for me so much.

Disillusioned, I went back to the hospital. There I found two doctors discussing my case. The report of the gastric fluid had arrived. There was evidence of lethal poisoning, for which there would be a police investigation. I knew only one person could have administered the poison!

                As four hours had not elapsed from my recorded time of death, I slipped into my body again. I tried to open my eyes--- surprisingly I could. Now I realized what the world really was! I am back in 6 Ballygunge Place, a wiser person, but no one knows about my secret escapade!